The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-12-22

Inch began With SO sweet "a Serenatie, Is
finally to be demolished sl:idst the ring
ing blast of the archangel's S trumpet, SO
that as there was mllsis at the start, there
shall be MUSIC at the close. While this
heavenly art has often been dragged into
the uses of superstition and dissipation,
we al know it may be the means of high
moral culture. OH. it is grand thing
to lave our children brought up amidst
the sound of cultured voices and amidst
the melody of musical instruments. There
is in this art an indescribable fascination
for the household. Let all those families
who have the means to afford it, have
flute or harp, or piano or organ. As soon
as the hand is large enough to compass
the keys, teach it how to pick out the
melody. Let all our young men try this
heavenly art upon their nature. Those
who haze gone into it fully have found
in it illimitable recreation and amuse-
ment. Dark days, stormy nights, sea-
sons of sickness, business disasters, will
do little toward depressing the soul which
can gallop off over musical keys or soar
in iubilant lay It viii cure pain. It
viii rest fatigue. It will queH passion.
It will revive health. Tt will reclaim dis
sipation. It will strengthen the immor-
tai soul. In the battle of Waterloo,
Wellington saw that the Highlanders
were falling back. He said, 'sWhat is
the matter there?" He was told that the
band Of music had ceased playing, and
he called up the pipers and ordered them
to strike up an inspiriting air; and no
sooner did they strike the air than the
Highlanders were rallied, and helped to
win the day. Oh, ye who have been
routed in the conflicts of life, try by the
force of music to rally your scattered
battalions.
arn glad to know that in our great
cities there is hardly night in which
there are not concerts, where, with the
best musical Instruments and the sweet
est voices, people may find entertain
ment. Patronize such entertainments
when they are afforded you. Buy sea-
son tickets, if you can, for the "Philhar-
monic" and the s.Handel and Haydn
societies. Feel that the $3.50 or 80 that
you spend for the purpose of hearing an
artist play or sing is a profitable invest
ment. Let your Steinway halls and your
Academies of Music roar with the accla-
AsASDtACAA NeANNA~AAOO' Se~Sc~-~
btsd at the concert or the oratorio.
Still further: ! commend as worthy OF
their support the gymnasium. This in
stitution is gaining in favor every year,
and know of nothing more free from
dissipation, or more calculated to recu
perate the physical and mental energies.
While there are good many people who
have employed this institution, there is
vast number who are ignorant of its ex-
cellencies. There are men with cramped
chests and weak sides and Respondent
spirits who, through the gymnasium,
might be reused up to exuberance and
exhilaration of life. There are many
Christian people respondent from year to
year who might, through such an insti-
tuition, be benefited in their spiritual re-
lations. There are Christian people who
seem to think that it is good sign to be
poorly; and because Richard Baxter and
Robert Hall were inyalids they think that
by the same sickness they may come to
the same grandeur of character. want
to tell the Christian people of my congre-
cation that God win hold you responsible
for your invalidism il it is your fault,
and when, through right exercise and
prudence, you might be athletic and
well. The effect of the body upon the
soul you acknowledge Put a man of
mild disposition upon the animal diet of
which the Indian partakes, and in little
while his blood will change its chemical
proportions. IL will become like unto the
blood of the lion or the tiger or the bear,
while his disposition will change, and be-
come fierce, cruel and unrelenting. The
body has a powerful effect upon the soul
There are good people whose ideas of
heaven are ali shut out with clouds Of
tobacco smoke. There are people who
dare to shatter the physical vase in which
God has put the jewel of eternity. There
are men with great hearts and intellects
in bodies worn out by their own neglects
magnificent machinery capable of pro-
pelling Great Eastern across the Atlantic,
yet fastened in arickety North river pro-
peller. Martin Luther was so mighty for
God, first, because he had noble soul,
and secondly, because he had a muscular
development which would have enabled
him to thrash any five of his prosecutors,
if it had been Christian SO to do. Physical
development, which merely shows itself
in fabulous lifting, or in perilous rope
walking, or in pugilistic encounter, ex-
7 cites only our contempt; but we confess
to great admiration for the man who has
great soul in an athletic body, every
nerve, muscle and bone of which is con
secrated to right uses. Oh, it seems to
me outrageous that men, through neglect,
should allow their physical health to go
down beyond repair. A ship which ought,
with all sail set and every man at his
post, to be carrying rich cargo for
eternity, employing all its men in stop
ping up leakagesl When you may,
through the gymnasium, work off your
spleen and your querulousness and one
half of your physical and mental ailments,
do not turn your back upon such grand
medicament.
Still further: ! commend to you large
class of parlor games and recreations
| There is way of making our homes 6
hundred fold more Attractive than they
are now. Those parents cannot expect
to keep their children away from outside
designations unless they make the domes
tic circle brighter than anything they
can find outside of it. Do not, then, si
] in your home sglrly and unsympathetic
| anu Wltn "a HILL lOOk, DS
cause of the sportfulness of your children
| You were young once yourself; let YOU
| children be yollng. Because your eye
are dim and your ankles are stiff, do no
denounce sporfulness in those upoi
whose eyes there is the first lustre, ap(
| in whose foot there is the bounding 10,
of robust health. thank God that il
our drawing rooms and in our parlor
there are innumerahle games and sport
which have not upon them the leas
taint Of iniquitv. Light up all you
homes with innocent hilarities. Do no
sit down with the rheumatism, wonder
ing how children can so on so. Rattle
thank God that their hearts are SO light
and their laughter is so free, and tina
their checks are SO ruddy, and that thei
| expectations are SO radiant. The nigh
will come soon enough, and the heart
break, and the pang, and the desolation-
it viii cc1se soon enough for the des